I woke up after what I hate to say was my best sleep ever. My headaches were also gone.
“Good morning sweetie” I have to give it to you that was the best sleep I had in a long time. I got up, took out my tails, and stretched. Wow it's almost noon. Time to blast that tree.
“Your friends are already at it but I think they need your help.” What? Why didn't they wake me up?
“They said they didn't want to disturb you.” Whud? Why?
“Ehehehe” Azuuuuu!
“Yes?” Alright! I'm leaving you behind!
“Noo!” She dove at me as I teleported. She surely is fast, she managed to grab me in time and got teleported with me. “So, mean!” Sup guys! How was your sleep? You seemed awfully comfortable hehe. We didn't want to wake up sleeping beauty. I'm so jealous!
Yes yes, what is the status? Gregory solved 2 obnoxious puzzles; we had some broccoli monsters to fight but this one seems in a different language.
I’m surprised they weren't all in an ancient language. They were but Azu could decipher those, she can’t decipher this one.
Hmm, hmm let's see. Oh, this is easy.
“Ow! If you want some of my beautiful hair you just have to ask!” We need something from the one imprisoned here. This wouldn't have been funny if we didn't know this was a prison. Or that Azu was the one imprisoned… Now I might be wrong because this language is a pain.
“Hey! So, you pulled my hair out for nothing?” You will forgive me, right? I looked at her with puppy eyes.
“Of course!” Heh, so easy, I can play this game too!
“Hey!” It worked. what is next? No clue, I can't read this. It would be nice if these jerks would stick to just one language. Can you read this Azu? Azu looked at the symbols that appeared on the trunk of the pink broccoli.
“Nope, no clue!” Well, this sucks, so we will be bottlenecked by some dead language. Can’t we just nuke it? Or hack it like you guys did the last timeline? Gregory and I sighed at the thought of hacking that barrier. I guess we have no choice…
“I can help! Magic runes are my specialty!” How reliable! Let's keep a lookout while these nerds hack this tree. Ok! I linked Gregory and Azu to my vision.
“Oh, wow this looks way easier like this! We should be done in no time!” This is a lot to decode though…
“Oh not really, you see these and these are traps, this is redundant it can go, hmm this one is tricky, maybe you can look through it Gregory, pay attention to this part if you mess with those 2 runes that part will either reveal itself as a trap or show itself as the main part running this section. Let’s see dummy, dummy dummy, dummy, trap. Oh, how cute nobody falls for traps like these anymore.” We just looked in amazement as Azu was wiping out traps and dummies like she was the one who made this obstacle. Hey, Azu do you even need us for this? Yeah, I feel that we would only hold you back…
“Oh don’t be like that! You can learn from the best! Take this opportunity!” Ehh ok… Sure. Azu spent half an hour teaching us the ins and outs of hacking barriers and layers of entry of magic defense systems. My head hurts. My headache is back…
“You guys learn fast! Let's do some research together after I’ve dealt with all my stuff!” I’m not sure if we will be useful to you… Yeah, this is nuts, we will just slow you down…
“Nonsense! Look we got through!” Gregory and I collapsed on the floor of mental exhaustion. This was like a week's worth of Hourai class in a half hour… Now I understand why Raishin hates studying…
“Hmm, that is odd, I can’t read this but it's in draconian. Did that dragon that Paula banished make this?” Wait does that mean we should've left that dragon alive? Not really… Ted and Gregory looked at me.
What? You know draconian right, and if not, you know a dragon…
Right, let's see… Great it's a stupid riddle. What happened to just defeating a boss and being done with it?
“Hey, what does it say?” Hmm, this is a weird one.
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This riddle describes my one-sided crush, whoever finds the answer to this riddle will be granted access to the Soun Tree’s core.
I am a creature both divine and rare,
With wings of gold that glitter in the air.
My breath is sweet, my voice is soft and kind,
And in my presence, peace you'll always find.
Though many seek me, few will ever see,
For I am elusive, even to a deity.
But if you are pure of heart and mind,
I'll grace you with my presence, and be forever kind.
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You know what? This sounds like someone I know. I bet Tero made this riddle! I stomped on the ground and summoned Tero.
Hey, Agnis if you summon him here won't that cause problems? Ehh…
“Low-risk assessment, you can't blame him for that” Then who do we blame?!
“The gods?” I like that let's blame them! Gregory covered us in a [Shadow dome] as the ground started trembling and Tero emerged.
“Hey, why is it so cramped here?! Hey, can someone help me? I’m stuck!” What is he saying? I don't understand Draconian! I linked everyone to my vision and created subtitles in Hourai. Only you can get stuck in a cave! We just need your head!
“You really are a rude kiddo! I will make sure your mother hears of this!” Yes yes, go ahead, if you find her send her my location, it would save me a lot of trouble.
“So rude! Did you summon me for this?!” We found a riddle that sounds like you made it, now spit it out what is the answer?!
“A riddle! Do you think I would waste my time playing with words and not with hot dragons?!” Right, my bad, you don’t have the capacity to create riddles, this one is on me, you can go back now… Oof, Agnis is roasting this dragon.
“Fascinating to think he can burn an earth dragon this easily.” He truly is the master of fire.
“Hey! Listen when you get as old as I am you will realize that only good things happen if you respect your elders!” I look at Azu, I look at Tero. Nice try!
“Hey, what is that supposed to mean!” Azu and Tero said in chorus.
“Hey, sexy, have I seen you before?” Great now he’s trying to pick up a witch, hey Tero focus! The riddle!
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This riddle describes my one-sided crush, whoever finds the answer to this riddle will be granted access to the Soun Tree’s core.
I am a creature both divine and rare,
With wings of gold that glitter in the air.
My breath is sweet, my voice is soft and kind,
And in my presence, peace you'll always find.
Though many seek me, few will ever see,
For I am elusive, even to a deity.
But if you are pure of heart and mind,
I'll grace you with my presence, and be forever kind.
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So, what is the answer?
“Wow, this guy must have really been a beta dragon! What a loser!” Tero, seriously? Weren't you the one who tried to score brownie points with my mother?
“Hey, it is not my fault she is hot! But hmm these friends of yours also give off familiar energy, are their mom's friends of yours?” Ehh, yes, wait you don’t…
“Hey, guys are these your moms?” He showed 2 images.
Nadila Sheru [https://i.imgur.com/0aensYb.png]
Felicia Torai [https://i.imgur.com/oeb83dP.png]
Hey, why does he have pictures of our moms? Wow, my mom was so young there! Ugh, I don't know but he also had one of my mom.
“Ooh! I haven't seen these pictures of the calamity trio! Do you have any copies I can have?!” Right, you were a big fan, he can’t understand Hourai or Kaledonian though. Hey Tero, this chick asks if you have copies of our mom’s pictures and we demand to know where you got them from!
“Oh, here are some copies for you sexy, now about this riddle…” I swear, when I’m strong enough I will kick your ass, now what about this riddle?
“I have no idea, but ‘wings of gold that glitter in the air’ reminds me of Edea, so many dragons had a crush on her." Great… more information that I didn't want to hear I can't imagine wanting to deal with dragons if this is how dragons are…
“Hey! Being a dragon is great! You get to do what you want and loaf around all day!” And you need to be a dragon to do that because?
“So, I think the answer to this riddle is your mom.” You can’t possibly suggest that the answer to this riddle is ‘Your mom’...
“No, not my mom, your mom!” What did you say about my mom!? Agnis, focus, please…
Right… The answer to the riddle is: ‘Your mom!’ Everyone who could, facepalmed.
No, he is talking about Edea as an individual. Oh, the answer is: ‘My mom’ They facepalmed again.
Just say Edea Hourai… The answer is Edea Hourai…
“Nothing is happening…” Yes, I can see that Tero…
“Well, I’m out of ideas!” Aren't you supposed to be super wise and all? Is this all you got?
“Each dragon has its own specialty!” And yours is?
“Collecting images of hot chi…” Right! Nobody cares! Hey, Agnis the riddle asks for the identity of the creature, not of a person.
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So, you’re saying the answer is a Phoenix? The tree glowed and the symbols disappeared.
Really? This dragon had a crush on my mom? Wasn't he too young to be around when my mom was down here? I’m more surprised that the random ramblings of this dragon were actually helpful…
Same…
“My work here is done!” But you didn't do anything… Tero burrowed and disappeared. Mental note: never call Tero for anything I need wisdom for…
“That was such a unique experience, do you guys always get adventures like this?!” Kinda… I wish we could have some more normal adventures… The tree stopped glowing and became transparent.
“That's my hat!” Stylish hat! Azu's hat was as expected, azure colored. it had some strange markings and patterns of mistflowers. it also had a real mistflower on it.
“Thank you!” Hey, what is that! I looked at where Ted was pointing and I froze. I grabbed my tail and reapplied illusions to my tails to make them black again.
“Oh, guys this is bad.” Who is this hottie a pink copy of?
“The goddess that trapped me here, her copy is certainly strong.” Hey, Agnis are you ok? You’re shaking. I... I'm fine.
“I will applaud you for coming this far but the fact that my copy had to appear means that this is the end of the road for you.” The copy talked as if the real one was talking through it. I grabbed another tail.
“Don’t worry, this is her personality, the real one shouldn't know about this yet.”
“Naturally it is impossible to replicate my exquisite beauty but the appearance of this clone will still be more than enough to drown out the repulsive ugliness of you ground crawlers. It is not too late to abandon hope and flee, for fighting my clone will end in your demise.” Yuck, that is one nasty personality, she was hot until she opened her mouth. Hey is Agnis going to be, ok? Azu hugged me.
“It’s ok it’s just a clone, we can defeat her.” I took a deep breath and slapped my cheeks. Ugh, I hate this bitch, guys, this is a clone of a goddess so take this seriously, but we have Azu on our side, we can't lose! Yeah, let's turn her into ash! Are you sure you are ok Agnis? You’re still holding your tail. Just imagine that she is a potato. At that moment a switch in me flipped.
Hey, Greg, Agnis changed his vision so that she looks like a potato. Oh, this clone is dead. I took potato peeler v2.0 out of my dimensional pocket and fired up my tail dynamo.
“I don’t know what is going on but I've never seen Agnis this serious before” We neither… Guys let's go all out before Agnis solos her! I used a 500-layered [Confusion] 5 times as I blinked behind her and used [Potato peeler v2.1] on the clone with purple lightning. The clone got hit by the confusion damage when it tried to react. I moved so that my buddies were at my back and used [Tsunami]. Azu used the water my tsunami created to cast her own [Tsunami]. Guys! Easy with the water! Light beams filled the room and Gregory blocked as many as he could with [Shadow wall] and the [Shadow cloaks] he put on us. Ted went big bear mode and used [Aurora Bearealis]. Raishin threw [Lightning glitter] and kept firing, [Lightning bolts] and [Nova blasts] at the bitch clone. It created a light barrier which got instantly broken by the 2 [Tsunami]
“Hehe, no light or earth barriers work against [Tsunami]” Azu used her water shark attack again and I used a 0 setup [Lightning umbrella]. Ted grabbed the bitch clone with his bear avatar and held her in the [Lightning umbrella]. I have some abyss magic ready! Just fire it! I threw a dagger at the bitch clone and swapped Gregory with it. He fired it off at point-blank range. The bitch clone took a lot of damage from it. Ted grabbed Gregory with his bear avatar and moved him away from some [Light beams] the bitch clone was firing off. Azu formed a huge ice spear. I decided to do the same and coordinated it to hit the bitch clone at the same time. It got hit but escaped Ted’s grasp.
” [Divine Radiance]!” Ugh, this bitch clone is of the cringy type. The whole cave was filled by a burst of light. Luckily, I had the [Frozen skin] skill from Azu, so I only had 1 layer left but since I got hit, I will have to survive for 30 minutes to get more layers. Azu seemed to get hit but seemed fine. Ted protected himself with his bear avatar but the avatar was really small now. Gregory managed to protect himself. Only Raishin got hit head-on.
Ouch, if it wasn't for Greg’s shadow cloak, I might have been seriously wounded from that. Light-speed attacks are cheating! I saw the bitch clone attempting it again so I interrupted it. The bitch clone locked onto me. I went into stealth and used a 500-layered [Confusion]. The bitch clone seemed to try and find my location by blasting random spots but Raishin went in with a red lightning punch. The bitch clone blocked it but Raishin followed up with [Updraft] launching it in the air. Gregory blocked some light beams aimed at Raishin with his [Shadow wall] and used [Liberation] after throwing his hammer. I used a controlled [Foxfire: Summer heat]. Azu jumped away but my buddies were immune to it thanks to Raishin’s racial perks.
“Hey, Agnis, are you ready for [Azure mist]? Will my buddies be, ok?
“You can set its target so they will be fine!” We both used [Azure mist]. The area became foggy but my allies and I could see perfectly through it. The bitch clone was throwing more light beams around but whenever she did, she got hit by a [Foxfire: Summer heat] and Azu’s ice spear. Wow, I suddenly get access to a lot of water! What is going on?
“Hehe this is my custom skill, it is very strong but even stronger against gods. Let me recite the instructions I made for this magic skill because I don't know if Agnis will use it otherwise.
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1. All magic circles or invocations take twice as long to activate, invocations need to be cast twice. Drawing circles is unaffected
2. 1 doesn't apply to divine energy but it does double the cost of divine energy used.
3. Obstructs vision and weakly saps mana and divine energy.
4. Azure mists require the caster to cast at least 1 attacking skill (Priming skill) before using it. Any skill used in the Azure mist that is weaker than the Priming skill gets turned into water and put under the caster of [Azure mist] control.
5. Any opponent outside the Azure mist can’t hit the user while he/she is in the Azure mist.
6. The Azure mist automatically attacks opponents that are using divine energy with the same power as the Priming skill. Non-divine energy users get hit for twice this damage.
7. Azure Mist costs minimal mana but has an insane cast time.
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So, since this bitch is firing off magic fueled by divine energy, she will eat my [Azure Spear] and Agnis fire attack whenever she does it.” So, if I use [Meteor] as a priming skill it will be easy to defeat a god if it spams skills like this?
“Well, yes and no, you see uhm, most gods would flee when [Azure Mist] gets cast since it doesn't prevent anyone from fleeing.” I see, that works too. So, do we just wait till it self-destructs? It has poor adaptability so I don’t think it will stop firing off attacks. This feels like cheating… If it works it works, how about we help her with her self-destruction and pile on?
I like that idea! Since the bitch clone had poor adaptability and couldn't see us because of the double cast [Azure mist] she just became a punching bag. That being said we still had to make sure we didn't get hit by random attacks. She also tried to use more room-wide attacks but we were prepared. Not without casualties though. I almost lost a life. Raishin lost 2 and Gregory lost 1. Ted came close to death multiple times but his insane vitality healed him back up. I had to assist him by infusing some nature magic into him. I unleashed a red [Dagger torrent] on her while Raishin kept chucking [Nova blasts]. Ted’s bear avatar was quite resilient and a force to be reckoned with, with his new [Arcane mastery] sadly this was needed because the bitch clone still managed to give him a run for his money. Azu did the heavy lifting by firing off various dark elemental magic. Gregory unleashed his tailed mode and the shadows seemed to come alive and assaulted the bitch clone. This allowed him to do a lot of damage and limit the amount of light in the area which drastically dropped her firepower.
Hey, is it just me or is Greg OP against this bitch? I was thinking the same. Go get her Greg! Gregory seemed to be able to charge his shadows extremely fast like this and could spam [Liberation] and abyss magic on the bitch clone.
Sorry guys, if I knew stronger abyss magic this might have been easier. Don't worry about it. Gregory made waves of something that looked like liquid shadows and drowned out the shadow of the clone and made our shadows stronger. What this means is increased resistance against light-based attacks for us, I don't know what removing her shadow does, nobody of us would throw light attacks at her, maybe it does something else. Gregory once told me that resistance against light magic can be removed if you remove that person's shadow, on the flipside by reinforcing the shadows the light resistance increases. I can see now why shadowcats were also a problem for this bitch goddess. Imagine a group of shadow cats using this, there's not much she would be able to do. Unfortunately, this bitch clone could still throw strong enough skills around to give us problems. Even Gregory's 3t mode and double [Azure Mist] weren't enough to make this fight easy.
I know that you want to cut her up Agnis, but getting close to her while she's thrashing like that will surely get you killed! Ok!
I shifted to mid-range and long-range combat. Most of the defense was done by Gregory and Azu. Raishin was throwing every lightning skill he knew at the clone while I was using frost magic and foxfires. Azu reminded me that I still hadn't used [Dimensional Sword]. I could cut stuff while ignoring distance. Another overpowered skill. Unfortunately, it wasn't overpowered enough against this bitch clone. It regenerated most of the damage we did to it regardless of the type of attack. Azu made sure to block every laser-type attack.
"Hmm, these attacks are getting weaker and weaker." Yeah, you can thank Greg for that, anything that has their skillset based around light or darkness is quite fucked with him around.
Greg gave a thumbs up as the waves of shadows wrapped around us and nullified [Light Waves]. He also strengthened our shadows. Our shadows were so dark that it felt like I could fall into them. It looked like an endless hole. He also made his shadow act idependantly from his body. It was strange but it didn't seem overly useful to me. Azu bound the arms of the bitch with [Azure Chains] and allowed us several seconds of free damage before she broke out and started to glow.
Guys! lets temporarily retreat! it's phase 2! Greg folded the waves of shadows and filled almost half the cave with his shadows protecting us. A shockwave ran through the whole area. Greg unfolded teh shadows and shot an [Abyssal Bolt] at the bitch clone. It blew off one of her arm and it didnt regenerate. Take that! Abyss magic will be your downfall!
Greg was looking quite cool at the moment.
"Potatoes, pink." Aaand his coolness disappeared as Greg turned into a potato and Azu turned into a pink blob. Uhh, guys? This is bad! I swapped Greg with an ice cube because a [Divine Light] was heading toward him and Azu. I hope Azu can tank this. The bitch clone still got hit by both [Azure Mists]. It was impossible for her to see us but these attacks seem to follow their targets and if her words were some form of command she wouldn't have to see us to use it. What a pain in the ass goddess. Azu got blasted and Greg, who i had saved unpotatofied and turned into his Gregory self. His 3t mode was gone though.
Azu! are you ok?
"Ugh, that stung, I forgot about that, it has been over 2000 years since I've fought her. Can anyone silence her?" I can fill her mouth with water or drain it causing her mouth to dry out but it needs a lot of concentration and I can't keep doing that.
"That's fine just do whenever you can. it might not look like it but we've already won! we just need to survive!"
Even though we basically already won it was still rough and after an hour the bitch clone was finally defeated.
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Holy shit that was tough. Imagine how bad it would have been if she could target us. Yeah, her phase 2 wasn't even funny. In her phase 2 she basically said 2 random words and those of us who were the closest associated with those words turned into those things for 5 seconds and at that same time were targeted by [Divine Light] It seemed to home in on the target so we had to defend our buddies. The roughest parts were when both Azu and Gregory got turned into something random. I can't swap things simultaneously so I could only swap 1 to safety with good timing. This is where most of us lost lives and where Ted took the most damage. Azu seemed a bit beat up but she still was better off than all of us. Besides that, the pink broccoli started shooting pink spears again halfway through phase 2 so Azu and I had to act as mana beacons and lure them away from the rest.
Oof, I thought that was a free kill after you guys landed that fog and Gregory went 3t mode but that still was impossibly hard. This would have been really ugly without you, thanks Azu, I'm also annoyed that her turning me into a potato cancelled my 3t mode... I was afraid that Agnis would turn me into ash... Come on! I have some self-restraint
“Don’t worry about it, unfortunately, this doesn't even come close to the real deal but it does feel good to destroy that bitch, even if it’s a clone.” Agreed. The tree started to become more transparent and it felt like something disappeared. We never felt like something was pressing us down but now it felt like something heavy lifted from our shoulders. At that moment I used up all the illusion layers I had to make sure that any god or witch that would come looking for us would be unsuccessful, besides that finding us would be difficult for other races unless it's by coincidence. With so many illusion layers it would 100% work against gods and witches, it would only be for 5 years but that is fine. I explained this to my buddies.
So, no more 500 layers of confusion or undoing catastrophic events? Nope sorry. How is Azu going to find us then? She is a witch too!
“It will take me at least 10 years to finish my business so that will be fine. Now for my hat!” Azu put her hat on and an enormous mana burst out from her. Some shackles and seals that seemed to have been invisible before appeared on her and all broke. her presince was quite oppressive and we couldn't help to get a bit frightened.
“I am free!” Guys, how did anything ever manage to catch her… I think I peed my pants… You are not suddenly going to decide to wipe us out right?
“Of course, not sillies! Not because I’m at full power now means I’m any different! I will just wipe out some people I have a grudge against, maybe slap that bitch around, recover my workshop and come back to join you guys” I can't wait… Just take your time, I don't mind if it takes you 5000 years or forever. Preferably forever.
“So cold! Right, I have to reward you guys! Here take this! It probably won't work in the first 5-7 years because of Agnis’ illusion but after that, when you use this, I will come and help you! Isn't that great?!” I accepted this rock that looked like a mistflower and attempted to throw it far away. Azu dove at me before I could do so. “Nooo! Don’t throw it away!” Let me go! I don't need it!
“Fine let's do it like this then!” She pushed it into one of my tails and it disappeared. Hey! What did you do?
“Since you won't use it willingly, I fused it with your life force, now again it doesn't work in those first 5 years but after that, if your life is in serious danger I will pop by!” Note to self: don't come close to dying else something worse than death appears.
“Just be true to your feelings! I know you will miss me! Say it!” So, what about the humans?
“Hmpf! Not fair, you're copying that dragon now!” What about them? Right, they are still stuck underground.
“Oh, I got them back up and restored the town, I even wiped their memories including about you guys! And now to heal you guys up!” Ooh nice, thanks Azu, and uhh maybe I will miss you. I dodged a hug to get hit by another one. She also gave my other buddies a hug which healed us up.
Thanks, a lot Azu. You saved our asses. Until next time. Oof, I’m tired. I broke all our slave crests.
Ah, right those were a thing. We are free men now!
“Right, I would love to stay but that mana burst I set off after getting freed is certainly going to attract attention so I need to get out of here, you guys should get out of here too.” Again, thanks a lot Azu. She smiled did a twirl, blew a kiss at us, and vanished.
So how do we get out of here? Let's go for a teleport! Wait! Let's at least say goodbye to Paul and Paula, I don't know if they still will remember us. Are you okay with Philip and Hera getting their memory wiped Agnis? It is rough but it’s better than that I will make them sad by leaving and never returning.
Makes sense. We surfaced. We had to go through the sewers to surface so Gregory was already in a foul mood. We visited Paul and Paula. Paula seemed young again but Paul was still an old man. They seemed to still remember and we shortly explained what happened. They seem to have decided to stay in Boshi town to try and put up an illusion to make it seem like the prison was intact. We said our goodbyes. I checked in on Hera and Philip and it looked like I never lived there. I was a bit sad but also happy that they wouldn't have to keep worrying about me. I retrieved the letter I left behind because it wouldn't make any sense to them now. We left the town and looked back one last time at the place where we lived for 5 years.
"Goodbye, shitty town." We said in unison as we descended the mountain and after 2 days left the Umbra and Lucidus mountain range.